When we got the call to do my Brass, Bows & Beats Symphony at The Harmony Festival in Sonoma County I was honored and super excited to bring 45 members from the Jazz Mafia up to my hometown and represent the work that I’ve been involved in for the past decade since I moved to San Francisco. Somehow all the business and logistics stuff was successfully negotiated and we began the very involved task of planning the show.

Out of the 12 Brass, Bows & Beats Symphony performances we’ve now done in the year of it’s existence, there was a consensus amongst the band that this was the best show we’ve performed yet, even though the Harmony Fest somehow didn’t get the memo that our 45 piece orchestra needs microphones. Hmmm. Anyway, to spare you the gory details, it was one of the gnarliest 4 hour soundchecks this well-seasoned performer has experienced to date. It was a testament to the high level of professionalism that the team we’ve built can maintain. A shout out goes to the crew at the Harmony Fest who were a part of the solution and a different kind of shout goes to the stage manager who forgot to order the mics (doh!).

Ok, so enough of complaining about stuff, let’s get to what made this the memorable night that it was.

First off, having Lyrics Born as part of the show is always something me and the band look forward to. Ever since I first heard him and Lateef (Latyryx) on Quanuum Spectrum, he’s been one of my top 5 fave Mcs, especially his rapping on tracks like his  ”Hott People”,  ”Give it to ya” by Blackalicious and “Do that there” from his first album. I’ve been LB’s horn/string arranger on his albums and to have him as a guest with my Orchestra is BEYOND a dream come true for me. For Harmony we had him up for the two collabs from our Brass, Bows & Beats CD, and then did a set of his songs including “Callin’ out, Over You and Hott to Deff.” We also premiered a brand new song off his forthcoming album, which we recorded in the studio with him – the track is called “Woulda, Coulda Shoulda” and it’s a disco/rap banger! Check out some of my camera footage HERE and HERE

On the last song of Lyrics Born’s set in the middle of Hott to Deff we were joined onstage by the distinctive baritone voice of Chali 2na of Jurrasic 5 and Ozomatli. We did 2 of Chali’s own songs, which we had never rehearsed with him or even talked about. He nailed it. Check out some of my footage HERE. I have to say that Chali 2na is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met and it was like buttah working with him. Looking forward to more Mr. 2na.

Maybe you’ve heard the saying “Bad dress rehearsal, great opening night” that the theater people say…well, in this case it was bad soundcheck, AWESOME show. Due in large part to the insane hard work and dedication of our manager Ben Yonas, the problems encountered in soundcheck were completely gone when we got on stage and started to blast.

The crowd turnout seemed high to me, even though there was much concern about something so different possibly not being a very big draw in Santa Rosa. The music was received with open arms and we definitely got a ton of energy and inspiration back from our peeps in the 707 audience. For me and Dublin who both grew up there, bringing a project like the Symphony up there meant a lot in many ways. Looking out to a couple thousand music lovers with 40 of my best homies on stage doing what I’ve worked my whole life to visualize and create was almost too much. I think most of the show I was holding my camera in the air filming because I kinda couldn’t believe it and I wanted proof that it was happening.

For the end of our 90 minute set, we also performed a brand new song called “Realize My Fantasy” which is a collab between me, Karyn Paige and Aima; a feature for the ladies if you will. This is one of my favorite tunes I’ve been involved with writing and I’m really thankful that I pulled a week of all-nighters and got all the music done that I had hoped for. I also managed to cut the well over an hour Brass, Bows & Beats Suite down to 45 minutes for the Hollywood Bowl show and this was our first run through of that.

Special props go out to our guest DJ Teeko, who SLAYED the turntables and is one of the most innovative . Teeko and our violinist Anthony Blea battling was off the chain! Dublin was in top form giving it all for his West County peeps. The 4 singers, now joined by Crystal Monee Hall sounded better than ever and were cracking me up with all their moves and smiles. The whole band was full of surprises, the trumpets all screamed out at a super random part and scared the crap out of me! The violins all stood up randomly for a passage and reminded me of a Mariachi band. We’ll be putting up more footage of the show momentarily.